I Switched Sides [25]

Just Show Them the Product [27]

The five words every SE hates — and the fifteen-minute move that turns a product tour back into a conversation. An SE got the call request with fifteen minutes' notice: "The prospect just wants to see the product. Don't overthink it." She ran the generic demo. Two weeks later the deal was dead. There's a better move — and it doesn't require winning the discovery-vs-demo argument with your AE. WHAT NATE AND AVA DISCUSS * The mini-discovery — three questions that frame the demo around the customer's actual situation without sounding like an interrogation * Why you tailor the narrative, not the build — same demo, different lens * When the mini-discovery is a rescue play (first call) vs. when it signals something broke upstream (call three) * The debrief move — sending what you learned back to the AE turns a rescue into pipeline intelligence THE MOVE Next time an AE says "just show them the product," don't argue. Take the meeting. Coach your SE to open with three questions before a single screen gets shared. After the call, send the AE what you learned. Prove the model through results, not philosophy. ---------------------------------------- 🔗 Resources & Links: paths.to/presales [https://paths.to/presales] 📅 Book a Discovery Call: calendly.com/serockstars-tim/discovery-call [https://calendly.com/serockstars-tim/discovery-call]

Define SE-Qualified — Or Your Calendar Will [26]

Stop saying yes to every "jump on this call." Write down the bar — and point to the page, not the person. An SE leader pulled his utilization numbers and found 31% of customer-facing hours going to deals that never made it past stage two. The fix wasn't more discipline — it was a written, signed-off definition of what must be true before a deal gets SE time. WHAT NATE AND AVA DISCUSS * The four green-light criteria — and the explicit red-list of what does NOT qualify * Why aligning the criteria with your sales counterpart removes the politics from SE pushback * How to start when you don't have a peer-level sales relationship — pilot with one AE, then bring the numbers up THE MOVE Sit with your sales counterpart and define, on paper, what must be true before a deal gets SE time. Four green-light criteria, four red flags. Share it with both teams. And when someone pushes back, point to the page — not the person. ---------------------------------------- 🔗 Resources & Links: paths.to/presales [https://paths.to/presales] 📅 Book a Discovery Call: calendly.com/serockstars-tim/discovery-call [https://calendly.com/serockstars-tim/discovery-call]

I Switched Sides [25]

What an SE leader sees in their first month as Head of Sales. A presales leader who built a thirty-person SE team just took a job as Head of Sales. In his first month he discovered the parts of the funnel he had never seen as an SE leader — and the parts of his old frustrations that suddenly made sense from the AE chair. WHAT NATE AND AVA DISCUSS * The parts of the funnel SE leaders never see — top-of-funnel prospecting and procurement grind * Why "AEs don't qualify properly" looks different when you're carrying their workload * How shadowing without structural change is just a nice bonding exercise THE MOVE You don't need to switch roles to switch perspectives. This quarter, arrange for one of your SEs — or yourself — to shadow an AE for a full week. And when you come back, don't just share what you learned. Propose one concrete change to how the two teams plan, share information, and own outcomes together. ---------------------------------------- 🔗 Resources & Links: paths.to/presales [https://paths.to/presales] 📅 Book a Discovery Call: calendly.com/serockstars-tim/discovery-call [https://calendly.com/serockstars-tim/discovery-call]

Score the Call, Not Just the Quarter [24]

A two-category rubric, AI scoring, and the coaching conversations it unlocks. An SE leader built a system that scores every customer call on two categories — compelling event and technical win — using conversation intelligence plus a custom rubric. The aggregate scores per deal and per SE replace win-rate post-mortems with real-time coaching. WHAT NATE AND AVA DISCUSS * Why win rates are lagging indicators and call-level scores are leading ones * How to roll out call scoring without it feeling like surveillance — transparency, shared rubrics, leading by example * Why two SE-specific categories beat trying to score the whole call — and why those categories should sit at the SE/AE handoff THE MOVE Pick two categories that matter most for your sales motion. Write down what a one and a five look like — concrete, not aspirational. Start scoring calls and aggregating per deal. When you roll it out, lead with the rubric and do the training yourself. Make it a development tool that happens to produce data, not a surveillance system that happens to coach. ---------------------------------------- 🔗 Resources & Links: paths.to/presales [https://paths.to/presales] 📅 Book a Discovery Call: calendly.com/serockstars-tim/discovery-call [https://calendly.com/serockstars-tim/discovery-call]

Two Pillars, One Team [23]

Why product enablement and sales enablement should never share a calendar. An SE leader running thirty SEs across multiple markets split his enablement into two completely separate tracks: an internal team for product knowledge and an external partner for sales skills. They never overlap — and that's the point. WHAT NATE AND AVA DISCUSS * Why a single enablement team always defaults to product training when a release ships * The blind-spot problem when the people who teach the product also coach positioning * Why continuous external coaching beats two-day workshops — the half-life is days, not months THE MOVE Split your enablement into two tracks. Internal team owns product knowledge, demos, technical onboarding. External partner owns sales methodology, discovery, positioning. Protect both calendars equally — the moment a product release eats your sales skills time, you're back to one pillar pretending to be two. ---------------------------------------- 🔗 Resources & Links: paths.to/presales [https://paths.to/presales] 📅 Book a Discovery Call: calendly.com/serockstars-tim/discovery-call [https://calendly.com/serockstars-tim/discovery-call]